Balancer was a pioneer in the DeFi space, and is a key building block of the infrastructure. This protocol allows efficient trading by pooling crowdsourced liquidity and identifying the best price.
Data shows the platform’s growth in terms of total value over the past year.
Before the most recent market-wide slump, which took place in May, Balancer had peaked at over $360 billion in TVL, a 450% increase in just 5 months, since January 2021.
During Bitcoin 2021 in Miami, CryptoPotato had the chance to speak with Jeremy Musighi – the Head of Growth at Balancer. We talked about the past, present and future of DeFi, Balancer, as also other important topics for this industry.
2021 Bull Run: Bitcoin Has Always Led the Crypto Markets
DeFi saw massive growth in 2021. At one point, the total value locked in various protocols across the industry peaked at over $80 billion – up 4 times from January alone.
We asked Musighi if he believes the bull market overall was the main reason for it or if it was an organic transition.
“I think that markets recognize how impactful DeFi is going to be and that it’s here to stay and I think it brought further awareness and education about how DeFi is prime to replace a lot of traditional financial services and products that we have.”
Musighi believes that the above is part and parcel of the reason for the bull. Musighi recognizes that it is a cycle.
“Investors recognize the opportunity here (in DeFi) and pour a lot of capital into it because they know how much it’s going to grow. This is what drives the bull market.
At the same time, the bull market and prices increase, bringing in more attention from other outsiders and other people who have not been involved and they get involved as well.”
He believes that Bitcoin has always been the leader in crypto markets, and that investors have a tendency to move their investments from one vertical to another .”
Balancer’s chief of growth also stated that “Bitcoin still serves as the primary reserve asset for crypto .”
Balancer: ‘The Most Customizable AMM’
Another thing that we were curious about is the reason for which Balancer lags behind other protocols such as Uniswap in terms of TVL.
Musighi explained to us that there are many factors that affect a product’s market fit and traction for DeFi protocols.
“One thing that’s clear about Balancer is that it has some of the best tech in the space and it’s also the most flexible and customizable Automated Market Maker (AMM) that there is. Balancer is DeFi-primitive in that it’s so flexible that it can be used in so many ways that it’s almost like a general purpose technology.”
But there’s a side to this – marketing. Although the protocol was founded in a short time ago, it has been managed almost entirely by “brilliant technical talent” but Balancer didn’t have many marketing people. “In fact, for a long period, we didn’t have any .”
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This is where the project still has room for growth and where the team is focusing their attention right now. Musighi says that this is one of the key factors to helping Balancer grow.
But there’s more: Musighi stated that Balancer Labs as well as the community had learned a lot by Balancer V1 being “in the wild growing as much as .”
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According to him, this has resulted in the successful release V2, which makes major improvements in areas like gas efficiency and UX. It also includes features that solve key market needs and stands out as an ideal solution.
He also mentioned that the transition from Balancer V1 into V2 was being done slowly and will take 6-8 weeks.
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) or Ethereum
Many decentralized AMMs, such as Balancer, and their greatest rivals Uniswap or Sushiswap, are heavily dependent on the blockchain on which they were built.
Ethereum was the most popular, but it was experiencing network congestion. This caused fees to skyrocket, and transactions to slow down. Ethereum 2.0 is a proposed solution currently in development. This will allow for the possible transition from a PoW-based consensus algorithm into a PoS one.
“I’m very optimistic about it – it’s really important. We are confident that Ethereum 2.0 will succeed. In the meantime, we always want to cater to the best interests of our users right now, not only in the future.”
Musighi stated that there are many scaling options, including layer two solutions, Ethereum sidechains and other layer ones, as well as adopting cross-chain compatible strategies. It’s also worth noting that Balancer has also launched on Polygon (a layer two solution) in aims of reducing the high gas fees.
“Those are the things that we’re thinking deeply about right now and very thoughtfully because we want to understand where we feel the future might go and how we can cater to the needs of the market in the best way possible.”
Elsewhere, we also discussed one of the hottest trends of 2021 – Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Musighi does not see it as an alternative to Ethereum. Rather, he believes that it has helped reduce Ethereum’s congestion by offloading transaction volume from the main blockchain .”
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He stated that the future and long-term would favor “the most transparent and decentralized solutions.” This is why other centralized blockchains cannot compete with the larger picture.
“If they did, they would see a massive migration of users, projects, liquidity, and volume off of Ethereum that hasn’t been happening. And that should tell you that even with its flaws and even with the areas that it needs to grow, it’s still offering so much value.”
A Crunch for Talent in DeFi
Jeremy believes DeFi is the future in finance.
“I think there’s less and less doubt about that idea in society in general today, which is of course, one of the reasons why we’ve been seeing these big bull runs.”
When asked about his biggest challenge, he stated that “bringing in different diversifications of talent into industry, making DeFi products better holistically accessible and more holistically sound .”
“I think one of the challenges that DeFi faces today is that there’s a crunch for talent because there are not enough people out there who are deeply familiar with crypto, but also have non-technical skills or even technical skills, all skills, from engineering to design, to marketing and branding and so on.”
He also spoke about the competition between DeFi (central finance) and CeFi (“centralized finance”), admitting that CeFi has “a lot of customers – they own those customer relations.” Another aspect is the front-end touch-point with digital financial service users.
This presents a tremendous opportunity for DeFi protocol, which can seamlessly integrate in the back-end because they clearly have technical advantages, but “the disadvantages of user experience design and user acquisition and mass market acceptance .”
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Ethereum Bulls Face $185M in Liquidations as ETH Price Slumps to 2-Month Low
Amid the broader market’s correction yet again today, ETH’s price has taken a major hit and tumbled below $3,000 for the first time since early November.
This has caused a lot of liquidations for over-leveraged bulls, with the number skyrocketing to nearly $200 million only for ETH-related positions.
As the graph above demonstrates, the second-largest cryptocurrency broke above $3,000 after the US elections in early November and didn’t look back for the next two months.
Moreover, the asset peaked at just over $4,100 on December 16, but that was as far as it could go. During the end-of-the-year crash, ETH slumped to $3,100 but managed to defend the $3,000 support.
It bounced off and went on the offensive at the start of 2025. Its yearly peak came on January 7 when it jumped to $3,750. However, that’s when the landscape took a turn for the worse, and ETH, alongside the rest of the market, started to plunge.
The subsequent rejection drove Ethereum’s price to $3,300, where it spent most of the next few days. However, another leg down initiated by the bears today pushed it south even further, and it slipped below $3,000 minutes ago for the first time since early November.
ETH is down by precisely 20% since its January 7 high (or $750 in USD perspective). Today’s drop was particularly painful for over-leveraged traders with long positions, as the total such liquidations has gone up to $185 million, according to CoinGlass.
In fact, ETH’s liquidations have surpassed even those for BTC, whose price tumbled from $96,000 earlier this morning to under $90,000 briefly.
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Post-US Election Honeymoon Ends as Macroeconomic Data Drives Markets
Digital asset investment products saw modest inflows of $48 million last week. While nearly $1 billion flowed in during the early part of the week, outflows of $940 million in the latter half reversed much of the gains. This shift followed the release of new macroeconomic data and the Federal Reserve’s minutes, which signaled a stronger US economy and a more hawkish stance.
According to CoinShares, this could indicate that the post-US election honeymoon has ended, with macroeconomic indicators regaining their influence on asset prices.
The latest edition of ‘Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report’ revealed that Bitcoin attracted $214 million in inflows last week, maintaining its lead as the best-performing digital asset with $799 million in inflows year-to-date, despite also seeing the largest outflows later in the week. Inflows to short Bitcoin products stood at $1.8 million.
Ethereum, on the other hand, struggled the most, with $256 million flowing out, which CoinShares attributes to a general tech sector downturn rather than asset-specific concerns. Solana, by contrast, remained strong, pulling in $15 million in new investments.
XRP amassed significant inflows of $41 million last week, driven largely by political and legal developments. The inflows reflect growing optimism as the January 15th SEC appeal deadline approaches.
Multi-asset products followed suit with $21.1 million in inflows. Interestingly, altcoins attracted investments despite lackluster price performance. Leading the way were Aave, Stellar, and Polkadot, which recorded inflows of $2.9 million, $2.7 million, and $1.6 million, respectively. Additionally, Cardano, Litecoin, and Chainlink also saw inflows of $1.2 million, $0.7 million, and $0.4 million, respectively, during the same period.
Switzerland Tops Outflows
In terms of geography, the US stood out with $79 million in inflows, followed by Germany with $52.4 million over the past week. Canada, Brazil, and Australia also observed inflows of $37.1 million, $21.9 million, and $10.3 million, respectively.
Switzerland saw the highest outflow for the week, recording $85.3 million. A similar sentiment was seen across Hong Kong and Sweden as the two countries witnessed outflows of $36.6 million and $33.2 million, respectively.
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Ethereum Price Analysis: What’s Ahead for ETH After a 9% Weekly Dip?
Ethereum currently rests at a notable support region near $3.2K, with market participants closely observing the potential for a bullish rebound.
The Funding Rates metric offers valuable insights into the sentiment within the perpetual futures markets, helping to gauge the likelihood of a recovery.
Ethereum has seen consistent declines following its rejection at the $4K resistance level, indicating the dominance of sellers. Most recently, another sharp decline pushed the price toward a substantial support zone, defined by the 100-day moving average of $3.1K.
This dynamic support is critical as demand concentration near this region is expected to curb downward momentum, with a bullish rebound being plausible if buying interest emerges.
Currently, ETH is trapped between the 100-day MA ($3.1K) and the $3.5K resistance level, forming a tight consolidation range. A decisive move in either direction will likely determine the mid-term trend.
The 4-Hour Chart
On the 4-hour timeframe, Ethereum broke down from an ascending wedge pattern, a bearish structure that typically signals further declines. This breakdown triggered a swift sell-off, pushing the price toward a support zone defined by the 0.5-0.618 Fibonacci retracement levels.
This support zone has the potential to stabilize the price and possibly initiate a short-term bullish rebound. However, persistent bearish pressure could result in a break below this line, intensifying the downtrend.
If Ethereum breaches this critical support zone, it may trigger panic selling, further strengthening sellers’ dominance. Conversely, a sustained rebound could pave the way for a recovery toward the $3.5K resistance level.
Examining the chart, the recent market correction has coincided with a significant decline in funding rates. This shift suggests growing bearish sentiment among speculators, with many traders betting on further decreases in ETH’s price.
However, upon reaching the substantial support zone at $3K, the Funding Rates metric has started to show signs of recovery. A notable bullish spike in the metric suggests an influx of buying interest as market participants begin to open long positions in anticipation of a price rebound.
If this recovery in funding rates continues, it could indicate sustained demand and the potential for a bullish rebound from the $3K support. On the other hand, if the current recovery loses momentum or reverses, it would signal a return to bearish sentiment, paving the way for a deeper correction.
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